HOW TO: Capture & compress video from pSX« Original Thread Started on 23rd Jun, 2007 at 11:05 »
Author: MikaLink to original threadI realized today that not all of you probably know about video capture all that much, and the possible post processing that can be done to the captured video. So here's a guide for Windows users (tested on Windows XP only) to;
- Capture video using Fraps.
- Compress the captured video using VirtualDub with free XviD codec so it doesn't take ages to upload.
- Upload the final video to youtube for us to see.
- I'm also going to assume that you are somewhat computer literate and know how to browse the internet.
- I'm only going to touch the areas that are relevant to this tutorial.
Firstly, get the Fraps demo, VirtualDub (the experimental works fine for me, but if you are scared of beta software, use the stable) and and the XviD coded. Install Fraps and Xvid, and unzip the VirtualDub to your folder of choice, somewhere you can easily find it. I recommend adding start menu item or a shortcut/dock shortcut for it.
Start your Fraps, and configure it. Hit the Movies tab and choose a folder for your captures. Select 60fps (lower fps settings will slow pSX down to that same fps). Check the Record Sound box, and choose a capture key. The default key, F9, is also used in pSX to quick save 4, but it doesn't interfere with capturing, so you can keep it if you want. Full size or half size isn't usually important to our goal, most of the bugs can be seen in half sized video as well. Capturing full size will initially take more disc space, and possibly more cpu power as well. I use full size, but I think it's best for everyone to test their settings personally. When you are done, minimize Fraps.
Star pSX, load the game you want to capture, load the state/memcard save/play to the spot the glitch is and hit F9 right before it happens. You might notice a fps drop due to the capturing. When you think you have enough video, hit F9 again to stop the capture.
Hooray, you now have a video! Now you may think that "But boy, it's huge! I can't possibly upload that monster to youtube, it will take me forever!" Indeed, Fraps makes quite large files, 10 second clip can easily take over 100 megs on normal window sized capture, and uploading that even with a fast internet connection can take ages. But fear not, VirtualDub to the rescue.
Start VirtualDub, skip the wizard and open the file you just captured. If there is some unneeded video in the file that you'd like to get rid of, you can cut the parts out first. Basically what you do is you select the beginning and the ending of the part you want to cut, and cut it. Use the slider at the bottom [1] to find the beginning (you can play the video as well of course), and of the two right most buttons below the slider [2], hit the left one to mark the start position. Then find the end of the useless part, and hit the right one of the two buttons to mark the end. If you did it right, you should now see a blue area in the timeline [3] that marks the selected area. Now just cut it [4]. Repeat if necessary for other parts of the video.
Okay, now that we have a video that contains only the relevant part, lets compress it. Go to the Video menu and select compression. A list of codecs will open [1], browse all the way down and select XviD, and hit the configure button. There's a lot of things you can do here, but lets take a shortcut and select the Portable Profile from the menu.[2] I think it's an okay preset for this.
OK your way out the configurations, and go to the file menu and select Save as AVI..., choose a folder, write a nice name for the clip and save. Two windows will open which tell us all kinds of things about the compression, but we don't care about those. After the compression is done, you can close the VirtualDub. If all went well, you now have video file that is but a fraction of the size of the original capture.
Head to youtube and make yourself an account if you don't have one yet. After registering and verifying the account, go to My Account from the upper left menu. You should see a bunch of options and links, but what's important is the button that says "Upload New Video". Click it!
Write a title and description for the video, write atleast one tag (mandatory, use psx or something like that) and select a category (I used Entertainment). In the rest of the video options you can do stuff like disabling comments, disabling embedding and stuff like that if you want. The most important option is that the video is Public (it's the default setting) so we can see it. Then click the Upload Video.. button at the bottom. Eventhough we shrunk the filesize a lot, the uploading will still take a few moment, and after the file is uploaded it will take a few moments more for it to be streamable, so go drink a glass of water or something. When you get back, go to My Videos (My Account->My Videos) and you should see the video you just uploaded. Copy the link from there in the thread you made.
And that should be it! Hooray!
If I made any mistakes, don't be afraid to point them out.
Write a title and description for the video, write atleast one tag (mandatory, use psx or something like that) and select a category (I used Entertainment). In the rest of the video options you can do stuff like disabling comments, disabling embedding and stuff like that if you want. The most important option is that the video is Public (it's the default setting) so we can see it. Then click the Upload Video.. button at the bottom. Eventhough we shrunk the filesize a lot, the uploading will still take a few moment, and after the file is uploaded it will take a few moments more for it to be streamable, so go drink a glass of water or something. When you get back, go to My Videos (My Account->My Videos) and you should see the video you just uploaded. Copy the link from there in the thread you made.